Robotis' CYCLOID II / III - anybody knows?

[austin2powers]

Hi,

first I was interested in Robotis' Bioloid, but the expert kit, which provides a C programming environment (necessary for my needs), won't be shipped this year.

Then I noticed the CYCLOID II and III kits at Tribotix.

Does anybody have positive experience with the CYCLOID or further informations about it?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Greetings from Germany
Henning

[inaki]

Do you know that the Comprehensive Kit also supports the C compiler ?
You can buy this kit now.

[Robo1]

Have you seen the price of them,

1. CycloidII - USD $20,000
2. CycloidIII - USD $7,500

If you have the sort of money then buy the CycloidII but if your like the rest of use then you can only keep on dreaming.

bren

[hivemind]

Or you could just use C and the Bioloid kit that is already out? The Cycoid robots are truly amazing, but seem a bit out of most people price range. But I think that the Bioloid can be run with just C (instead of the motion editor?), so why not just go with that?

[austin2powers]

Do you know that the Comprehensive Kit also supports the C compiler ?
You can buy this kit now.

Hi inaki,

Robotis' statement concerning C-programming:

We are not able to launch expert kit to overseas now. It will be end of December.
Only expert kit containing C-language program base.

This confused me, but I guess (or I hope) that this only means, that there will be a software-package (i.e. compiler..) included only in expert kit.

...so that the basic kits also allow C-programming.

Greeting from Germany
Henning

[smoothchat]

Check this out. A cost effective alternative to the Cycloid....

http://forums.tribotix.info/forum1/54.html

[limor]

autin2powers,

Here are some basic facts that you may find useful.

The CM5 is the Bioloid controler based on Atmega128 it comes with the Beginner kit, the Advanced kit and the (non existant) Expert kit.

The CM5's Atmega128 comes pre-installed with some firmware that allows for text-mode interraction with the servo bus and allows the Windows GUI software to control the robot.
This firmware can be replaced by your own proprietry code.
You can write such code in C and compile it with Atmega128's GCC compiler called WinAVR.
More intro info can be found here.

[austin2powers]

Thank you all for your elaborate answers.

This firmware can be replaced by your own proprietry code.

Hi limor,

are you cocksure about that?
Because then I wonder why Robotis always accentuates that only the "Expert Kit" will have a C-environment included.

Greetings from Germany
Henning

[limor]

Sure i'm cocksure about it I have been compiling code for CM5 regularly since i've had bioloid (Advanced kit).
Have a look at this thread for "firmware" code examples.

Also, please have a look at the Bioloid documentation: http://robosavvy.com/RoboSavvyPages/Support/Bioloid/
you will see that the kit's document shows how to use the GCC compiler and some example code.